The Presidency and the question of dual citizenship

Feb 17, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I could understand the law that the President should be Guyanese period! What I don’t get is why the presidential candidate needs to give up dual citizenship. The candidates are not the President as yet and it is not worth giving up dual citizenship, they are just ordinary citizens running for president. Should a person who buys a lottery ticket quit his or job, buy a new house and car and relocate the family in anticipation of winning? Moreover, everyone can throw their hat in the presidential race if they believe they have a chance of winning.
On the other hand, it is justifiable, and rightly so that you give up your dual citizenship if you are elected president and accept the position. Besides, you being elected president by the majority of the Guyanese people should be a tremendous honour. For this reason, the first step is to demonstrate your loyalty to the Constitution and people by renouncing your allegiance to a foreign country and its Constitution.
For the losers, no one will ever know who held dual citizenship. This is fair and honourable as well. I am in favour of renouncing dual citizenship as prequisite to be a candidate in order to enter the presidential election, if you are compensated in the like manner of being involved in a terrible accident. It would be similar to how insurance actuaries calculate the financial costs of risk and uncertainty associated with paying out insurance settlements. In the loser case, it would be the loss economic and social opportunities of no longer being a citizen of those countries with better “prospects”.
So I say get over the stupid idea of having to renounce dual citizenship to run for president, and ask if there are many who have the right ideology and money to win over the Guyanese people. Then the moral turpitude afterwards you are elected president.

Keith Bernard

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